Ted Cruz, Beto O 'Rourke Race in Texas, has seen a deluge of outside spending

As Texans prepare to vote for the final elections in the 2018 general election, they will do so as a result of a flood of unusual foreign spending for the state, motivated by a highly controversial race in the US Senate and by the US. broadening the battlefield of Congress.

These competitions have quickly become in recent months the main attraction of super PAC that can collect and spend unlimited amounts as long as they do not coordinate their campaigns. The final numbers are yet to come, but in the end, it is likely that these groups combined to pay more than $ 40 million into the state during the general election.

In recent history, the race at the 23rd Congress was the only competitive competition organized by the US House in Texas in the fall, and it has attracted the lion's share of external spending. But this has radically changed this cycle: the National Democrats have targeted a total of eight GOP-open or GOP-chamber seats, most intensely after Hillary Clinton's three districts won in 2016: 23, 7, and 32. These two The last – located respectively in the expensive media markets of Houston and Dallas – generated more than $ 13 million in external expenditures, while the 23rd reached just over half.

The biggest outside investor in these three races seems to have been the Congressional Leadership Fund, the main super PAC helping Republicans in the House to save their majority. The group ended up investing more than $ 6.5 million on Texas television, in addition to opening field offices in the trio of districts.

"CWF quickly realized that this would be a historic election cycle and we have aggressively and early invested in races across the country, including Texas, to carry out voting operations and to define and disqualify Democrats. . said Courtney Alexander, spokesperson for the Congress Promotion Fund.

While the landscape of outside spending in House races was dominated by traditional players like the campaign committee of each party, he also saw some new big spenders. For example, America First Action, a super PAC created by President Donald Trump to defend his agenda and support his political allies, has spent more than $ 3 million to help US representative Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, in his fight against Democratic challenger Colin Allred. On the other side of the race, Sessions received over $ 750,000 from Patients for Affordable Drugs Action, a new non-partisan group.

The Senate race has also become an attraction pole for external spending, as it became apparent that US Senator Ted Cruz was in a real race against his Democratic challenger, El Paso, the US representative Beto O & # 39; ; Rourke. Cruz was mainly assisted by Texans Are, a super PAC formed discreetly before the contest was perceived as competitive and then spent nearly $ 5 million, mostly against O & # Rourke, under the direction of the long-time strategist of Cruz, Jason Johnson.

The Club for Growth, the national anti-tax group, has also invested in Cruz at seven figures. He played a crucial role in recruiting Cruz in the Senate. His arrival in the race in early September took place while Mr. O. Rourke was seeing his best poll results. The group thinks it's been overthrown by an advertising campaign that aimed to undermine the image of the people's man by focusing on his time on the El Paso City Council.

"What we saw was essentially a race that was going to go from a pretty assured victory for Cruz to a competitive race around Labor Day because O 'Rourke had collected a ton of money and was presenting a story that would allow him to be the underdog's voice against Washington, "said Club for Growth President David McIntosh in a statement. "I think it's fair to say that because of what we did … [it] changed the trend line and virtually halted O'Rourke's hike. It is since then a slugfest between Cruz and him. "

O 'Rourke, who far exceeded and exceeded Cruz, also received support from the super PAC, but not as much as Cruz and the bulk of that support came late in the campaign. Fire Ted Cruz PAC, which has largely contributed to attracting media attention, has been the main outside group benefiting O 'Rourke. He has published a series of anti-Cruz online advertisements directed by Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater without ever collecting enough money. go on TV, at least in a percussive way.

O 'Rourke has received significant sums of money from the outside over the last two weeks, when the super anti – Cruz called Texas Forever was formed and immediately went on television in Dallas with a $ 1.2 million purchase of Cruz at the expense of health care. During the final days of the contest, Texas Forever added $ 1 million to the purchase and extended it to Houston and San Antonio.

The super PAC benefiting O 'Rourke undoubtedly created tension for the candidate, who did not accept the CAP's money during his campaign and stood against big money in politics on the stump. After Texas Forever debuted, a spokesman for O'Rourke reiterated that the campaign was not interested in using Super PACs or special interests and did not want their involvement in this race. ".

External spending has also made life a bit difficult for Cruz. Towards the end, a Republican Super PAC called ESAFund aired in Houston a TV commercial that highlighted OW's arrest for drunk driving in 1998 – something that Cruz had avoided in his own campaign.

"I have consistently refused to deal with this problem," Cruz told reporters Monday, following his interrogation about the ad. "This is not a subject I have been fighting about, I have focused and will stay on issues, fundamentally, politics."

While super PAC spending has traditionally been spent on TV commercials, a number of active groups in Texas during this cycle have done more than that – especially with on-the-ground efforts. The Congressional Leadership Fund opened field offices in the 7th and 23rd districts last year and the 32nd this year. Groups such as the Progressive Turnout Project and the Texas Organizing Project organized banking and telephone banking operations independently of the campaigns for which they worked. Help me. The Progressive Turnout Project, a new national group of this cycle, focused on the 7th district – and the US Senate race within the district – while the Texas Organizing Project divided its resources into a number of competitions. key since the match between Cruz-O & Rourke and the local judicial elections.

The work of the Texas Organizing Project embodies a long-standing ambition of the Texas Democrats.

"For us, one of our priorities is the growth of the electorate," said Michelle Tremillo, executive director of the project. "We want voters in this state to reflect the majority of us who live here, so we specifically target people of color, black and white people, women, youth, to increase the number of people who vote."